


Shelter

by Keenler1112



Category: The Blacklist (US TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-17 01:06:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28591473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keenler1112/pseuds/Keenler1112
Summary: This text is in episode 3 of season 8 when Liz goes to Ressler's apartment after the events of the park.
Relationships: Elizabeth Keen & Donald Ressler, Elizabeth Keen/Donald Ressler
Comments: 6
Kudos: 41





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my I don't remember the number text. The idea came to me when I saw the photo of Liz knocking at Ressler's door in the next episode. After we talked about it on twitter in one of the Keenler GCs, I said I was going to write it so I did.  
> Enjoy!

Liz walks quickly down the hall and stops in front of the familiar green door. She knocked gently on the door next to the golden number 5 and waited for a response. After a few seconds Ressler opened the door and she instantly felt relieved.

"I didn't know where else to go."

Ressler stepped aside slightly to let her into the apartment. Liz stepped forward and snuggled right into his arms. Don closed the door behind Liz and wrapped his arms around her. A few minutes passed and neither of them wanted to move. After all the events of the day, they both needed this contact. Don was the first to break the silence:

"I'm sorry."

Liz lifted her head from Don's shoulder and looked at him questioningly:

"What are you talking about?"  
"It's my fault. If I had arrived in this park earlier, if I had been there, it might have changed things."  
"It's not your fault Ress. Even if you had arrived earlier, it didn't change anything. I was there and that didn't stop Reddington from shooting. Don't blame yourself."

For the next hour, the two had moved to the sofa, and sitting close to each other, they had talked about the events of the day. They had covered everything: Red, Katarina or even Liz's choices. She was lost without her mother and didn't know how to approach the following of the events:

"It was Katarina who had the hideouts, the reinforcements and the weapons. I have to bring down Reddington, but I'm totally alone and run out of solution."  
"Hey you're not alone, I'm here."  
"I've already involved you enough in this, I don't want to put you even more in danger. If I go after Reddington, he will defend himself and you know as well as I do that he will stop at nothing."  
"And you know as much as I do that it is out of the question that I let you face all of this alone."  
"I can't ask you to follow me in there." Liz whispered, tears in her eyes.  
"You don't have to ask me. I have always been there for you, I will always be there for you ok?"

Still in a whisper and her eyes wet with tears, Liz replied:

"I love you so much."

She leaned over him and captured his lips. Their kiss intensified and quickly they moved closer, leaving no space between them. Ressler wrapped his arms around Liz's waist, who took the opportunity to climb on top of him. She brought her hands up to the back of his neck, her fingers losing their way in his short hair. A shiver ran through Don's spine the second Liz's fingers reached his scalp. He broke the contact of their mouths and left a trail of kissing down her jaw until he reached her neck. Liz gave an involuntary moan that prompted Don to stand up, taking her with him. He quickly moved to his bedroom and let the door close behind them.

The next morning, when Liz opened her eyes, Don was still asleep. He was more peaceful and relaxed than she had ever seen and yet she had to go. She had to put an end to it and she had to do it alone. Don had already done so much for her, to protect her and to help her, she couldn't ask for more. She couldn't put him in more danger. She had to complete what had been started without taking him with her. Reluctantly, she gently freed herself from his arms. She picked up her clothes from the floor and put them on silently. She came out of the bedroom and grabbed a sheet of paper and a pen. After scribbling a few words on the sheet, she returned to the bedroom and put the note on the nightstand. She gently stroked Don's cheek and let her hand wander through his hair for a minute as her eyes filled with tears.

" I hope you'll forgive me."

She stood up and moved away from the bed. After one last look at Don, she left the room and the apartment. The sound of the door woke Ressler who opened his eyes, slowly resuming contact with reality. He felt something was wrong the second he didn't see Liz next to him in the bed. He turned, ready to stand, when his gaze fell on a piece of paper on his nightstand. He grabbed it carefully, knowing full well what he was going to read on that note.

"Don,

Sorry for leaving without a goodbye but we both know I would have stayed if you had asked me to. I must finish what I started, put an end to this quest for truth which has lasted too long. Last night was the most beautiful of my life. You give me the strength to fight, to keep moving forward and I could never thank you enough for that. I didn't mean it when I told you that we've come so far just to end up right where we have strated. You are my teammate, my family, my island of calm, the only person I am safe with. But you are also my weakness. That's why I have to finish this alone. Make sure you stay out of trouble until I get back and watch over the team, they'll need you.

I love you more than you can imagine,

Liz "

Don put the note back on the nightstand. He knew she would go all the way to get her answers. But he also knew that he would never give up on her and that he would give everything for her.

"I love you too Liz, and I'll get you out of this."


	2. A Burning Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Typically, the continuation of the first chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was not at all planned for me to do a sequel, honestly I don't really know what to think of this chapter but anyway Enjoy !

Two days had passed since that evening, two days during which no one heard from Liz or from Reddington and Dembe. The taskForce was busy every minute to find them one like the other but they had very few leads and time was against them. They knew Liz wanted to bring down Reddington and if they didn't arrive in time the situation could get out of hand very quickly. That's why the TaskForce wanted to use all means at their disposal to find Reddington before Liz. The usual members of the TaskForce had been joined by several other agents, and there were now almost 20 of them rummaging through any files that might indicate where to find Reddington. Most of the files went nowhere, but a tiny part finally turned out to be useful. They had three potential places to explore: an apartment and a shed that could serve as a safe house, and a smaller place a little out of town, which appeared to be a storage place for a lot of computer data. The power consumption of readings at this address was constantly peaking, as if servers were permanently connected. Cooper had sent Alina and two other agents to search the hangars, he was planning to leave himself with Ressler to check the apartment and he had sent Aram to the place which seemed the least threatening so that he could go there alone. After all, they needed all the agents available to search the hangars and the apartment, and Aram could handle the computers. The teams once determined, each went his own way.

A dead silence reigned in Ressler and Cooper's car. Ress had never been the type to talk about his feelings, even less to his boss. Yet he had a hunch that he was going to have to explain his secret meetings with Liz and when Cooper spoke, Ressler knew he wasn't wrong:

"Do you love her ? Liz I mean, is that why you didn't say anything about your meeting? ”  
"Sir, I ..."  
“I know that look Agent Ressler. Look, I don't intend to fire you, or suspend you, at least not for the moment, we are understaffed and we must remain united. But I want to know if I can still count on you Don. "

Ressler's hands tightened around the steering wheel. He knew he wasn't going to be able to push the subject off forever:

"You can count on me to stop Reddington."  
"Okay, what about the first question?" "  
"Sir? "  
"Do you love her ? "

Ressler imperceptibly nodded, not trusting his voice to speak. Cooper, satisfied with his agent's answers, turned to the window again and concentrated on the road for the remainder of the journey.

Aram, on the other hand, was the most nervous. He knew he was probably the least risky one, but all the tension that had built up since Liz left was really starting to weigh on the morale of the team. All he wanted now, other than a vacation of about 4 years, was to find Reddington and stop his plan from going too far. Aram arrived at the address about 20 minutes later and parked in front of the house. He had only been out of town for a few kilometers and yet no other houses could be seen in the vicinity. Aram cautiously stepped forward and entered the house. After a quick search of the place which confirmed that he was alone in the house, he approached the computers and set to work on the servers. A few minutes passed without Aram encountering any problem. Unfortunately for him, the calm was soon disturbed by a slight noise coming from the entrance. Aram drew his gun and approached the door. He positioned himself behind a wall, and leaned over slightly so that he could see the door, ready to greet this unexpected visitor.

"FBI HANDS UP!"  
"ARAM PUT YOUR WEAPON DOWN IT'S ME!" "  
"LIZ ??!! "  
" YES IT'S ME ! WHY ARE YOU SCREAMING? "  
"YOU ARE SCREAMING TOO"  
“Right, i'm sorry. What are you doing here Aram? "  
"Cooper sent me, we're looking for Reddington and there might be some info here. What are YOU doing here?" We looked for you everywhere. "  
“I know, I'm sorry. I had to go, I'm at the same point as you, I'm looking for Reddington. "  
"Liz I don't know if ..."  
"We're here for the servers, aren't we?" So let's get started? Liz didn't give Aram time to answer, wanting to avoid to talk about why she left.

She walked over to the computers and it didn't take long for him to join her. They both progressed through the files in pleasant silence. Their work was interrupted by a loud crash and the sound of breaking glass.The two agents rushed to the noise emanating from the next room to find it on fire. A flaming projectile had been thrown through the window and the fire was spreading very quickly. Liz and Aram tried to reach the main door to exit but the fire had already spread to the entrance and they could not move further. They turned around and after doing their best to slalom them between the flames, they reached a room at the back of the building which had not been touched too much. They made it out of the room window and found themselves on the ground outside, gazing at the building reddened with flames. Liz pulled out her phone to call the fire department and paramedics as Aram tried to reach Cooper to tell the team what had just happened. Cooper was unreachable so Aram contacted the Post Office. He quickly explained that he had found Liz in the house but that it had been set on fire, with them inside. Help arrived quickly and Aram and Liz found themselves sitting in the back of the ambulances, rescuers bustling around to examine them. It was Aram who broke the silence first:

"Why did you leave? We could have helped you, you know. ”  
“I didn't want to involve you more than you already were. It would have made you choose between Reddington and me or between your job and me and I didn't mean to force that on you. "  
“We are a team, a family Liz. You can count on me. And I can tell you without going too far that you can count on others too. Cooper and Alina want you back and I don't even need to talk to you about Ressler. "  
"Thank you, really." Liz replied, moved to know her family on her side.

Aram smiled in response and took the opportunity to bring up the subject he had wondered about since knowing that Ressler and her had seen each other in secret:

“And what exactly is going on with Ressler? "  
"Nothing at all. "

Liz's response was anything but convincing and she found that Aram could have a very persuasive look. Anyway, at this point, what was the point of hiding from him?

"It is complicated. "  
“No it's very simple on the contrary. Donald Boy Scout Ressler breaks all the rules to protect you and he is ready to fight with Reddington to defend you. Ressler wouldn't do this for everyone. So the real question now is: are you finally together now? "  
"How's that finally? "  
"It's not like you've been in love with each other for years!" "  
“I don't really know what we are, we haven't really talked about it."  
"If it was up to you what would you say? "  
"I think we're together, well I don't really know, like I told you, we didn't really have time to talk about it. "  
"Do you want to be with him? "

Liz looked at Aram, a slight smile spreading over her face.

“More than anything else. "

Ressler and Cooper, for their part, had completed the search of the apartment without finding anything. They were about to leave when Cooper pulled his phone out of his pocket to check his notifications. He noticed a missed call from Aram but before he could call him back he got a call from the Post Office. When he heard Cooper's worried voice on the phone, Ressler immediately knew that something was wrong. After a very quick conversation, Cooper hung up and announced anxiously:

“It was the Post Office, Aram found Liz at the address he was supposed to go to but a fire broke out while they were still inside."

Ressler felt a wave of panic wash over him. 

"Are they okay?"  
“They were able to contact the emergency services so I imagine that it must be fine but I don't know more, let's wait until we are there to find out more. Firefighters and an ambulance are on their way as we speak. Alina has been notified and the team she was with will be going there as well. Let's go. ”

The drive seemed like an eternity for Ressler. He no longer counted the number of speeding violations he had been able to do. He asked himself millions of questions: was Liz okay? Why was she in this house? Who had set it on fire? His brain was racing, his mind wandering about the night he had spent with Liz. She had told him that she loved him and she had even written to him but he had not had the opportunity to tell her that he too. And he couldn't help but think that if she didn't survive the fire, if he lost her today, he would never have told her how madly and deeply in love he is with her. 

Lucky for him, they quickly arrived at the home. The flashing lights of the firefighters and ambulances and the color of the flames gave the surroundings a red tint. As they approached the house they could see two ambulances, a fire engine and Alina and her team located in front of the building. Ressler looked around for Liz and finally found her standing next to Aram and Alina behind the ambulances. Ressler had never felt so relieved in his whole life. He parked and got out of the car in a second without even waiting for Cooper and rushed over to his colleagues. Liz was talking with Aram and Alina. The paramedics had already examined Liz and were now taking care of Aram. The three colleagues, alerted by the sound of a car coming to a halt, turned their gaze to the source of the noise. Liz met Ressler's gaze and the night before came back to her mind. She didn't think their reunion would come so soon and she knew that now she would be unable to leave again. Ressler let his legs carry him as fast as they could towards Liz. Before anyone had time to speak, he narrowed the distance between them and kissed her more intensely than he had ever kissed anyone. Liz responded to the kiss as if her life depended on it. They forgot about the world around them, only focusing on the presence of the other. All eyes were on them but they didn't care and they parted a few minutes later, breathless, never leaving each other's arms. Ressler rested his forehead against Liz's and gazing into hers he said:

"You ran away this morning before I even had time to answer you, but I love you too." 

The rest of the TaskForce watched them, a big grin spreading across their faces. Ressler then spoke with hope:

"Come home with us ... come home with me." 

Liz thought about it for a second. She wanted answers and she had given a lot to get them. But after the events of the day and those of the day before, she would not be against reinforcements. Especially if the reinforcement in question is her family. She looked at Don and nodded, a slight smile spreading across her face. She could put an end to the search for answers that she had been carrying out for years with the help of the team. She could end it with Ressler because after all, if he had been with her through every ordeal of her life, he could be with her through that ordeal too. Ressler felt a weight lift off his chest. Liz was coming home with him and they were going to face this problem together. He leaned over to her and they kissed again like a promise. The promise not to leave each other and to stand together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it !

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading !


End file.
